It has been common practice for many years in the field of goods storage and transport to store goods on pallets, typically comprising wooden platforms of uniform shape and size and having uniform apertures in their bases to enable ready transport of the goods by powered apparatus such as fork lift trucks and the like. Numerous different sorts of pallets adapted to more readily carry different sorts of goods have been shown in the prior art. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 3,753,407 to Tilseth which shows a pallet which can be adapted to carry either flat or annularly shaped products. Another patent in this class is U.S. Pat. No. 3,431,870 to Naylor et al; see also U.S. Pat. No. 3,628,805 to Archer.
Another need addressed by the pallet art has been that requiring storage of empty pallets in limited spaces. To this end knock down pallets and modular pallet assemblies have been developed. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,327,654 to Duncan et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,176,632 to Yingling and U.S. Pat. No. 3,133,511 to Phillips.
Another feature sought to be made available by the prior art is the ready stacking of a plurality of pallets, either with or without goods placed thereon, for efficient use of floor space. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 3,207,095 to Hiatt, Jr. as well as the patent to Duncan et al. referred to above. Examples of allied concepts found in related art fields are shown by the U.S. Patents to Giardini U.S. Pat. No. 3,857,494; Telfer U.S. Pat No. 3,480,154 and Downing U.S. Pat. No. 4,056,295.
Another feature of prior art pallets is adaptation to carriage by differing types of lift trucks; see U.S. Pat. No. 3,677,200 to Coccagna et al. The prior art also shows methods of adapting pallets to carry a larger quantity of goods; see U.S. Pat. No. 3,702,678 to Stephens et al.
It will apparent that it would be desirable to provide a pallet system which would comprise a first member which would be common to a wide variety of uses and corresponding additional members which could be readily added to the base member to adapt it for use for a wide variety of different types of goods. In addition to the patent to Tilseth referred to above, this has been addressed by U.S. Pat. No. 4,062,300 to Real. The Real patent suggests the use of a molded plastic basic pallet with various sorts of superstructures attachable thereto by use of elaborate spring loaded frangible pins.
Thus, while attempts have been made in the prior art to develop a pallet which is adaptable to a wide variety of uses, which is economical of space when not being used, and which is inexpensive of construction, it will be apparent that there remains room for improvement in the art of efficient storage of goods.
Beyond the pallet art discussed above, the related art includes vertical racks adapted for mating with pallets of specified design so that pallets laden with goods can be placed one above another in racks at spacings determined only by the vertical height of the goods on the pallets, thus conserving floor space. Thus, the shelf becomes the pallet, and vice versa. Prior art apparatus of this kind includes pallets having hooks and pegs adapted to interact with support means such that a pallet laden with goods can readily be placed between selected ones of vertical supports by an operator operating a fork lift, elevator, or the like and lowered onto spaced hooks so as to support the laden pallet in a vertical array. However, the pallets of such systems in the prior art have not been adapted to a variety of uses.